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MIAMI—It was a day or so before the NBA regular season opened when a member of the Raptors coaching staff sidled up to a reporter in an Air Canada Centre hallway.

His message in a discussion of the impending season was clear and to the point and went something like this: “We need to get drilled early. We could use a wake-up call.”

The point was that after an easy pre-season — two games against Sacramento, two vs. the Knicks, two against Boston, one against a decimated Oklahoma City roster and one against a second-tier Israeli team is hardly a challenge — there were bad habits creeping in, and perhaps a false sense of security or accomplishment.

And while the Raptors may not have been drilled here Sunday night — although the final score was entirely flattering to the losers — the wake-up call some of the staff wanted has arrived.

After getting away with two victories despite bad habits to open the season, the Raptors were beaten 107-102 by a good team in the Miami Heat, and they have to realize now that some overall improvement is needed.

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It’s early — 79 games left is eons in the NBA world — but the time to nip bad habits in the bud can’t come too soon, and even a solid fourth quarter against Miami can’t provide any solace.

“We have to play that way through the whole game and not just decide, ‘Oh, we gave up 60-some in the first half, now we have to play defence,’ ” said DeMar DeRozan, who led Toronto with 30 points. “We can’t keep that mindset. We have to play like we did in the fourth quarter. We have to.”

But they haven’t, and that’s the issue to be dealt with. Toronto hasn’t been crisp in every facet of the game any night this season, and it was more the skill level of opponents than anything the Raptors did that allowed them to get two straight wins.

Even without LeBron James, Miami is good and exposed the Raptors. Dwyane Wade looked rejuvenated with 19 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, Chris Bosh had 21 points and 11 boards and Miami put up a 64-point first half.

“It caught up with us, letting them shoot 59 per cent in the first half finally caught up with us,” said coach Dwane Casey. “We’ve got to set the tone and play with a sense of desperation in the first half and that’s what we didn’t do. It finally caught up with us.”

The coach didn’t use the word, but “disposition” had to be on his mind. The Raptors are nowhere near good enough to ease into games against quality opponents, and having their heads handed to them in the first half Sunday proved that.

“I’m not taking anything away from Miami. They shot the ball very well — some of them were contested, some of them bounced around and bounced around and went in,” said Casey. “But we’ve got to make them miss. We’ve got to make them feel us, and we’re not doing that. We’re fouling, but we’re not fouling to make them feel us on the defensive end and there’s a difference.”

There will be statistical points that people will look at as the reason for the loss. The Raptors were killed on the glass, out-rebounded 43-28, and sorely missing the injured Amir Johnson, out with a sore left ankle. Toronto was also a miserable 28-for-38 from the free-throw line. Both were factors, to a point.

“Tonight would have been a perfect game if Amir played,” said DeRozan. “That’s Amir’s game — do all the dirty work, rebounds or even the tap-outs to give us the chance to get the rebound.”

But who knows. More offensive rebounds might have been nice, but they would not have masked the defensive issues.

“We’re scoring. We’re getting opportunities to score. We get to the free-throw line 39 times,” said Casey. “Offence is not an issue. Defence is our issue. We have to decide collectively to guard people.”

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